403 Forbidden

Michael Eric Ballard's organic brain disorder made him more susceptible to alcohol and less likely to control his emotions, both factors that led the 37-year-old to kill four people, a forensic psychologist testified Friday.

But prosecutors revealed a letter Ballard wrote to one of his defense experts, in which he rationalizes the murder of "harlot" Denise Merhi as "righteous" and a way of absolving her "sin" of dating other men.

"I’d make the same choice every day for Denise and the others," Ballard wrote in a letter to mitigation specialist Louise Luck, who also testified Friday.

Ballard pleaded guilty April 20 to killing Merhi, 39; her father, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather Alvin Marsh, 87; and neighbor Steven Zernhelt, 53, last June at Merhi’s Northampton home. A Northampton County jury will decide if Ballard receives the death penalty or life in prison.

Forensic psychologists perform evaluations for legal cases, both civil and criminal, and Dr. Gerald Cooke specifically evaluated Ballard to see if he had any brain damage.

On Friday, Cooke testified Ballard's history of head injuries, estimated to number between five and 12 and including at least three that led to loss of consciousness, resulted in brain damage.

That's in conjunction with Ballard’s diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder and depression.

Defense attorneys previously acknowledged they did not have evidence for a mental infirmity defense, which led in part to Ballard's guilty plea to four counts of first-degree murder.

Cooke said the brain damage leads Ballard to have trouble stopping his emotions, particularly in stressful situations.

"He can't put on the brake?" defense attorney James Connell asked, to which Cooke agreed.

Bright but with dark side

The damage has not affected Ballard's intelligence; Cooke said Ballard's IQ score is at the upper end of the average range.

But a prison psychologist described a dark side to Ballard's aptitude, District Attorney John Morganelli said.

"He seems to use his intelligence to study and to observe and plan things out for personal gain, not taking into consideration the welfare of others," Dr. Scott Onuschak, a psychologist, stated in a report.

Onuschak goes on to describe Ballard as "extremely dangerous, cold and calculating," lying in wait for an opportunity to take a hostage and escape from prison.

Morganelli also countered Cooke’s testimony with a letter Ballard wrote to Luck, his mitigation specialist, who investigates defendants' lives.

In the letter Ballard describes a "nightmare" where he was shooting people with a shotgun at Merhi's home. Ballard describes laughing hysterically at the people he's killed in the dream and then wakes up, Morganelli said.

Ballard then details judging Merhi in "righteousness" about her sin of seeing other men. Ballard rationalizes that a dead person is absolved of sin and "the rest of us live in sin while my baby’s free from sin."

Ballard also drew a detailed sketch of him standing over Merhi at the crime scene, which prosecutors previously revealed during a pretrial hearing. Morganelli argued the brain disorder did not affect Ballard’s ability to remember details of the bloody crime scene, including where Merhi’s body was located in the kitchen.

"Some things impact our memory more than others," Cooke said.

Talk of past angers family

Luck took the witness stand Friday, testifying about Ballard’s difficult childhood in Arkansas. She did not mention the letter in her testimony.

Luck pointed to Ballard’s physically abusive father, seemingly uncaring mother and extreme poverty -- his family did not have running water in their home -- as mitigating factors in the crimes.

"His mother deserted him," Luck said. "It was anything but a loving environment. It was an angry environment."

She also claims Ballard was sexually abused by relatives as a child. Morganelli previously said there were allegations Ballard had sexually abused a child but the claims were unfounded.

When Luck reported the sex abuse claims, members of Merhi's family stormed out of the courtroom.

Ballard's sentencing trial will start up again Monday, and testimony is expected to end as early as Tuesday.

The jury must also hear a tearful phone call Ballard placed to his father 10 days after his killing spree.